Fruit Cap Carboy Removal

[Grancru]

I have been seeing recipes for melomels where the fruit such as orange wedges pushed through the small opening of a carboy during initial fermentation. My question is how do you get the wedges back out after racking to the secondary?

I want to try an Orange/Cinnamon melomel once I find a tried and true recipe.

 

[MedsenFey]

You can use just about any tool that you find handy. You turn the carboy over to get the orange pieces near the opening, and you can use a bottle brush, a coat hanger, crochet needles, needle-nose pliers, a hemostat, or just about anything else to grab them or pull them though.

This process is exactly why I now ferment most all fruit batches in a bucket.

Medsen

 

[WheresOurFish]

What Medsen said. As an added bonus, if you use a bucket, you can put the fruit in a grain bag or some cheese cloth for easier removal. I just pulled the pineapple and ginger out of my latest batch last night so that things can settle back down before I rack it to secondary this weekend. I'm also expecting to lose less of my mead by doing so.

 

[summersolstice]

I just use a fork for orange wedges. It works pretty good.

 

[jaxn]

I just use a fork for orange wedges. It works pretty good.

Same here.

 

[Beernik]

Most of the time: if it goes in easy, it comes out easy. Sometimes you have to stick your fingers in there and pull it out.

 

[Grancru]

Thanks everyone

 

[jim_reaper1066]

I had made a hard lemonade once and cut the lemons into 8's. After racking into a bottling bucket the remaining lemons in the carboy had become so hydrated and squishy I could shake them out over the kitchen sink. They just shoot right out.

 

[DaveAllen]

I cut the fruit small/thin enough so that it goes right in without being forced. When it's time to clean up, I fill the carboy with water, invert, and start swirling to create a cyclone inside, and 95% of the fruit matter swirls right out.